Biggles in Tibet (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Biggles is in London writing up a report when he receives a phone call late at night. It is his uncle "Dickpa" asking him to come quickly to Brendenhall Manor and to exercise care. Biggles hurries down and while walking through the park to the house is stopped by someone with a gun. It turns out to be Myriam, his cousin and Dickpa's daughter. They hurry to the house but then meet a luminous bluish cloud. Biggles' hand is paralysed and he drops his pistol but Myriam takes a shot and the blue light disappears. At the house, Dickpa explains. The previous year, he had travelled to Tibet with a friend Maty. They heard rumours about a luminous mountain and wanted to explore it but as they approached the area, they were attacked by a blue light. They shot at it and started an avalanche which buried them. Dickpa was rescued by a few lamas but when they searched for Maty, all they found was a skeleton. Dickpa identified it as Maty from some personal effects but noted that the silver cigarette case was missing. Dickpa returned home but found the blue light had followed and continued to stalk him. Biggles determines that Dickpa was not safe at Brendenhall. The only solution is to return to Tibet to unravel the mystery. The three of them set off in the Wanderer, Biggles' Air Police Albatross amphibian. Flying into the Himalayas, Myriam spots the blue luminous mountain. Biggles notices that as he neared the mountain, his engines lose power but pick up again when he turned away. He puts the Albatross down on a plateau at a safe distance from the mountain. By this time, Dickpa has concluded that the mountain must contain a lot of radium to cause it to glow even by day and affect the engines the way they did. The presence of such a valuable mineral would also explain why someone, the people using the blue light, were so tenacious in keeping Dickpa away. The party sets off for the mountain on foot and sets up camp on the foothills at nightfall. That night someone comes and paralyses Biggles by throwing a tube which gives off a blue light but Dickpa drives him off. A violent storm blows their tents away despite their efforts to batten down, and the group is forced to head upslope to look for a cave or gap in the rocks to shelter in. Biggles finds one but before they can get in, they are buried by an avalanche. They awake to find themselves in a monastery with Tibetan monks who tell them their leader, the Head Lama, "The Supreme Chosen One" will soon receive them. Waiting for the audience, Dickpa suddenly thinks he hears his friend Maty's voice, or is he dreaming? When proceeding to the audience hall, Biggles knocks accidentally against a monk and a pistol clatters to the floor. Biggles returns it to the monk but is surprised to note that it is not one of theirs. The "Supreme Chosen One" asks why they have come to the place. Dickpa explains that they are here to explore the mystery of the Luminious Mountain and its blue light. However the "Supreme Chosen One" is more interested in knowing if anyone knows they are here. Biggles declines to answer this and notes that the Head Lama appears annoyed by this. The Lama ends the audience by telling them that the Luminous Mountain is taboo but his monks would escort them to the foot of the mountain. First, they are welcome to rest a few days as the journey will be an ardous one. That night, Biggles cannot sleep and looks out the window. He sees a monk leading two dogs away from the monastery. Suddenly the two dogs start fighting. One kills the other and then begins to attack the monk. To defend himself, the monk throws a tube which explodes and gives off a bright blue light which brings the dog down. Now Biggles has no doubt--the monks are the ones with the blue light! But Biggles does not see a monk behind him who has caught him looking out the window. He threatens Biggles with a gun. Biggles leaps at him and they both struggle for the gun. The monk wins and is about to use the gun when he is knocked out by a sharp chop to the neck from someone. It turns out to be the Lama, the Supreme Chosen One. He takes Biggles to his chambers and explains that he is not really a Lama but a government agent. The government of the country has become concerned that the monks were being infiltrated by foreign agents and sent him to investigate. Again he presses the question: does anyone else know of Biggles' expedition? Then he offers Biggles a cigarette from a silver cigarette case. This jogs Biggles' memory. Again he declines to answer the Lama. The Lama loses his patience and throws a switch. A panel in the floor opens under Biggles' feet and he falls into a pit. In the morning the Lama tells Dickpa and Myriam that Biggles has gone off to the luminous mountain on his own. Dickpa doesn't believe it. The Lama says that Biggles is stubborn but perhaps Dickpa and Myriam can catch up with him on the way and convince him. Dickpa accepts the offer so, accompanied by a party of monks, they depart the monastery. Dickpa doesn't suspect that they have been tricked. The Lama actually intends them to kill them but to make it seem like they had accidentally fallen to their deaths into a ravine. This has to take place some distance away to avoid suspicion falling on the monastery. In the meantime, Biggles is to die of starvation in the pit. But Biggles is not out of options yet. A mouse crawls out of the pit through a small gap in wall. Biggles still has a pocket knife so he begins to loosen the stones of the wall patiently. He finally creates a large enough hole and wriggles out and finds himself outside the monastery. He climbs back in through a window and is lucky enough to find an empty room with a table with a meal laid out! He grabs a quick bite but is interuppted by a monk entering. He knocks the monk out and, as he had come to expect, there is a useful pistol in his pocket. Out in the corridor, he follows a pair of monks to a room where they activate a stone statue, revealing a secret passage. Through this, Biggles lands up in a massive power station. Inside is the Lama. He gives final orders by radio to the party of monks in the mountain. They are to bring Dickpa and Myriam to the foot of the luminous mountain and then kill them with the blue light. Biggles hears this and knows he must act fast. He springs into the room and grabs the Lama. With his gun at the Lama's throat, the men at the monastery are forced back and told to put down their weapons. Then Biggles orders the radioman to send message to cancel the execution of Richard and Myriam and have them brought back to the monastery. This comes just in time. The monks have forced Dickpa and Myriam to the edge of a ravine and are about to throw a blue light grenade when the countermand arrives. But the danger is not over. One of the Lama's men crawls unseen above Biggles and throws a blue light grenade at him. Biggles spots it and throws the Lama on top of the luminous blue fumes. He knows he must keep the Lama's men from approaching. His hostage is his only trump card. But a rolling wagon on rails moves between him and the body of the Lama, momentarily obstructing his field of fire. The Lama's men seize the initiative and make an attack and succeed in dragging their leader clear. Biggles is forced to retreat and is almost cornered but he spots a vent and crawls through it, ending up in a munitions storage room. With the plentiful explosives available he builds a time bomb with enough delay until Richard and Myriam return. He must hold out until then. But that is easier ssaid than done. As Biggles leaves the monastery, it seems like the entire gang has turned out to attack him. He does not think he can hold off the attacks much longer. Worse, a few of the gang work their way behind him and prepare to toss a few blue light grenades. Fortunately, the party from the mountains arrive at this time and Dickpa shouts a warning to Biggles. Biggles turns around and quickly shoots down the would-be blue light throwers. Meanwhile Dickpa and Myriam make use of the confusion to break away to join Biggles. The battle ends shortly thereafter as the bomb explodes, demolishing the monastery. Surveying the wreckage, Biggles shows Dickpa the body of the Lama among the debris. He is actually Dickpa's travelling companion, Maty. He had apparently been sent by a foreign power to explore the mysterious power source. The skeleton Dicka had found was not Maty's. Maty remained behind, and with the help of other foreign agents, had driven the original monks away from the monastery. Maty had had his face altered by plastic surgery but he had given himself away when Dickpa thought he heard a familiar voice. Then he had offered Biggles a cigarette from a silver case. With the threat from the blue light aggressors over, the party leaves for home. Note: Biggles does not explain how he knows some much about Maty and his involvement with a foreign power but he did hint earlier in the story that he had not told Dickpa everything that was in the report about the dead Chineseman in Dickpa's park. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)